nc211

Spy Bot & Spy Hunter found 126 flawed files. Norton 2007 Internet security "firewall, antivirus, spam blocker, spy blocker, etc.." didn't find a single thing!! . What a joke!!!! The computer is going to be redone, from the fdisk, on up. The registry was thrashed, and it's all been eliminated, but I still get that annoying security pop up on my tool bar. I've searched all the startups, process, boots, wins, etc.... I can't see where it is located. I've deleted the files from the C:drive folders where it installed itself, I've flushed the memory, I've done everything I know to do. Either way...the home computer is down for a while, that's for sure.

:chairshot: I need help from the computer gods! My home computer has been attacked by some damn program called Spy Dawn, which is acting like a anitvirus program, but I know it's not. It has taken over my tool bar, my home page and keeps throwing up pop-ups. I have Norton 2007 protection, all up to date. I ran spy bot, updated of course, and it found 20!! things spying on me! I erased them, deleted the program, went into msconfig from the run application to check for anything unusual in the startup and services section, nothing unusual. I know this stupid program is spying on me...aka..spy dawn = spied-on. I can't seem to kill this thing off! I run XP Pro, SR1 "can't upgrade, due the fact that I have a burned copy from my college days when it first came out". Microsoft won't let me upgrade it, without charging me a ton of money. I have never, I mean NEVER had a problem with it, until now. I always have my security set to max, always updating... Anyone have any ideas how I can kill this damn thing off?? PS: NOBODY PM ME OR EMAIL ME UNTIL IT'S FIXED!! No telling if this thing is running around in my address book and sending junk out. If anyone gets anything from rtw211, or bama211 from yahoo in your in-box...DELETE IT!!! Sorry fella's!! NC's got the VD! Oh...and no, I wasn't looking at the good stuff when I got this. <_<

Will, I'm a little confused by "safety pin?" The pads are locked into place within the caliper by two slider pins, one on the left side and one on the right side. These pins slide through the holes on the pads, which locks them into the caliper seat, and also allows the pads to slide to and from the rotor when you press the brakes. Are you saying that your left "upper" slider pin was not there? And when you would reverse, the pads were sliding up/outward from the seat and hitting your tire rims, then when you went forward, the rotor was pulling them back down into the caliper seat? If that is the case, then you must of had an extra slider pin around, because I would assume the original one had come out completely? Wow, that's a pretty significant error on Lexus's part if they did not install the slider pin correctly, and / or even know to check them when you took the car back in. That is some elemantry stuff to figure out, even for us DIY types, as you have successfully found out

I did the seafoam through the brake booster line last Sunday. This was my second time, first time was last spring about this time. I'm still on the original plugs, but I think this past time might of finally gotten them. There was a TON of smoke this past time, way more than the last time. I used about the same amount, but I think I let the stuff sit in there for a little longer than last time. I can tell the car is a bit pepier, but not by much. It stumbles a little under heavy acceleration, which I believe is due to the plugs. I put a can of seafoam in the gas tank last weekend as well, mixed it with a full fill up at the pump. Blake, looks like you're plugs are going in this weekend amigo!

It's not a clunk, but more of a metal on metal CLANK, and only the 1st time you apply your brakes in the direction you are going........ That is your brake pads shifting back and forth in your caliper. My guess is that you have after market pads that do not have the proper shim and fitment kits. I went through this extensively myself last year. Went and bought a set of autozones, they clanked....went and bought some ceramics....clanked....finally ordered oem, shim kits and fitment kits all around.....no more clanks.

Miami, I spoke with Andrew a couple of years ago "he's the owner", and at that time, he did not have the genII model bushings made, and when he did have them done, he wasn't going to sell them in the states without a major distributor backing. I wasn't sure what he meant by all of that, but i decided to just go with the oem stuff. They look great! But I'm not sure he actually has them made for the 1995+ models???

Man... I can't believe I missed this thread!! :cries: I have a whole new bag of smartass comments just ready to be let loose!! CRAP!! SWO...DON'T BAN HIM!! I have "WHAT KIND OF CAR DO YOU WANT WOMAN???" frustrations to vent out with trying to make my wife happy, and that guy was lining up to be the PERFECT candidate. Gregg.... you need to take a trip down to Skynyrd's bar down on the beach, walk in and say "I drive a new Lexus, and you're all poor hillbillies!!" AND, you need to have someone who won't get thier asses handed to them run the video camera, and post the video on YouTube for all of us common-folk to laugh at when we're on our 10 minute smoke-breaks between bagging groceries, so we can keep up the struggle of owning our "ancient" 3 year old Lexus cars. And before you start making comments on how I've picked on Jacksonville.... know that I was born there, and those two high-rise apartment projects going up on the beach...are sitting on my desk as I type, just waiting for my signature for authorization for this month's draw funding. But I probably won't get to them, seeing as how I drive only a 1995 LS400, and don't know how to write. I may be a flashy business card in cheap shoes....but I'm well respected by my peers, which I can say is more than what you've got going on these days. I would rather have old toys with many friends to share them with, than all the new toys, and nobody to share them with...any day of the week, no matter how wealthy I might be, or become. I've read your posts over the past few months, and I would honestly say that you did receive a few unfair shots from some of us. But at some point in time, a person has to evaluate their situation and ask themselves "are these negative actions, or negative reactions?" Good luck Gregg, hope the best for you and your LS460. Sorry this isn't your type of crowd. No harm, no foul...

Right you are! It was the sturt rods. I took it in to the Lexus dealership and they said it was the control arm bushings. Took it to an independent Lexus shop he slammed the brakes as Blake said and it clunked something terrible which as I see now is strut rods. I am going to try to do this one myslef along with front brake pads. Pads and strut mounts parts & labor from my guy would run me $500. I can get the OEM parts for $200. I'll be doing some searches on here to find out procedure. If anybody knows of a good write up, please let me know. Thanks guys! You can get just the (factory) bushings with out the rod from Sewell lexus in dallas Tx. for about $90.00 (for both) shipped to just about anywhere in the US. Talk to Ryan in internet parts sales at 1-866-775-3311. I have never done the job but am getting ready to do it and I understand that they will need to be pressed in. Good Luck! if you have not pressed out and in bushings before, i think the extra $150 bucks for the entire arm assemble is worth the hassle. but none the less, that is great news for us 95+ owners who have had to buy entire arm assemblies in the past for just the bushings, as were you guys with the 90-94's could buy just about any bushing you needed and pressed them in.

Always willing to help out a fellow Heel.... message was sent to him to come check out your posting...

sounds like to me it's your strut rods...you agree Blake? If you turn the wheel all the way to the left or right, and then look at the suspension arms in the front of the wheel, you'll see a pretty thick cast iron rod attached to the lower control arm and the front of the car. If you lay on the ground and peak just under the front lip of the corner of the bumper, you'll see where that rod attaches to the car, and you'll see the black rubber bushing it attaches with. You should also see a dial bracket for alignment purposes. These strut rods are usually the first to go, and when they start to go, it really degrades the car's ride, especially over bumps...it's a jarring effect. Very typical repair, especially at that mileage and age. I agree with Blake on the suspension being probably the top issue. These cars are sprung so softly, that their suspension components move, a lot! It's not like in a sports car where you have minimal movement of the control arms and such. These control arms bend, twist and adjust at pretty dramatic degrees. Trade off is that famous lexus ride...cost is those rubber bushings get eaten up. But in all honesty, at 11 years old and 100k miles, who wouldn't expect a few suspension bushings to wear out a bit on any car. www.lexuspartsonline.com or any other from www.parts.com or www.irontoad.com.... probably $300 in parts. It's an easy DIY project if you're the type. I would say this as a word of caution on the car...if you are not a DIY type, then expect to pay pretty heavily for labor. You see Toyota...the mechanics see Lexus. Even the dealerships act like this, just call up a Toyota dealership and price a quart of transmission fluid..then call the lexus dealership and price the exact same fluid....you'll see what I'm talkng about.

Holy Smokes, look whos' back on the boards!! Josh, good to hear from you man! The kid is in the middle of a freakin' war zone, litterally, and is still raving about that Toyota Matrix! Hahaha... I know, I know....I get this wild hair idea about every 6 months to ditch the LS for something newer, and I never can make myself do it. Honestly, I think it might become my airport car in the future. I have been in San Diego for the past 5 days, and came back to my car being covered in dirt! How that happened is beyond me, especially since it was on the 5th level of the covered parking deck. I think the wind probably stirred up the dirt from the concrete as many other cars were covered in that crap too. But made me realize how MAD I would of been if it had been on my new 430. I know the car will always start and get me home, in comfort. There is something going on with the steering these days, it's a bit loose. I think it's time for some inner tie rods...might have to ring-up homer soon. Man, great to hear from ya' Josh! I was sitting in the Dallas airport earlier tonight with a group of army guys, one looked a lot like you. Infact, I almost walked up and asked him if it was you. I always said that I look forward to having to pay taxes some day, because that means I'm making enough to have to pay, but damn, does it have to be this year? It's not bad, just a few hundred bucks, but sure wasn't happy to see that ticker switch from black to red. I've deducted everything on earth that i legally can, interest on the mortgage, donations during the move, you name it. Still got slapped. Haven't had the house long enough to really benefit from the interest deductions yet.

my guess is 40% of trade in value. carmax is a joke when it comes to pricing, both on trade in value and especially on sales! They're always about $1,500-$2,000 over market retail around here.....and are JERKS to boot!

too much Jesus Juice and Cheetos...

nc11, I am gearing up for this repair and getting all the parts together. The price of around $60 is for the strut "rod". The shock absorber or strut is $100+ (non-air). Strut mounts are about $100 each! I found an ebay seller for the KYB version for about $40 each. You need 4 of them, 2 fronts and 2 rears. Then you need new bumpers all around : 4x$15, front spring insulators : 2x$30, rear insulators are 2 pieces : 2x $30. I understand that the manual calls for the rear axels to be removed but others have said this is not necessary. Can anybody confirm how this procedure goes? Also the spring compressor tool used, a simple inexpensive one from ebay? Thanks, glenmore 1990 LS400 1991 300CE 2000 C280 Glen, sorry, I missed this one.... The rear axles do not have to be removed at all. I do recommend the use of a flat wratchet for the tops of the rear strut mounts, as it is pretty tight along the back widow. An air wratched would be ideal. I used a pair of spring compressors from the rent-a-tool program at autozone. I HIGHLY recommend using a drill with a converted wratchet attachment to tighten the compressor clips, otherwise you will wear yourself out if you do it manually, that's what I did, and it nearly killed me! Took forever, and by the time I was done, i had no strength left. I just replaced the struts, none of the other stuff. That was about 25k miles ago. I can tell, especially in the cold air, that my strut moutns are wearing out, as the car creaks, and I get a lot more road noise into the car through the hardened rubber mount rings that the springs rest against. I'm not so sure you need the bumper caps, mine looked brand new. I do suggest the strut mounts though, since you're gonna be there anyway. They great thing about our cars, and especially being the DIY types, is that spending the extra couple of hundred bucks on the surrounding parts, really generates a benefit. I mean when you're 10+ years old, anything you put on the car that is new and oem is going to have a very positive impact. So the money's not wasted. Even if the part is "with in spec", a new one IS "spec". Can't beat it! My strut mounts are hopefully going to be replaced this spring, along with new inner tie rods and/or a rebuilt rack.

Jesus Juice & Cheetos...

Geezzz man, what's your son's name? Bo Duke of the Dukes of Hazzard? Kid jumped the van.... Now that's funny!! sort of...

Well....no new car for me for a bit...one word killed this pipe dream for the moment.....one word, one word only........ IRS :chairshot: :cries:

Swo.... there is one in Herndon... apartment converted to condo...594 units....80 left unsold. Selling at about $350 SqFt, and renting around the $2.35 per sqft. Only 6% are "investor" owned, the rest are owner occupied. But our **zzuto project is going up next door, all rental. Working on another on centerville by dulles, maybe 2 years out, 16 acres, huge project of about 500+ units, all rental. Texas development company. N. Virginia might be a pain to get to, but the opportunity is following the residences...aka...milllions upon millions of SqFt of office & retail space, at a tight vacancy factor. The trend is forecasted to continue. Although I have my doubts it will remain as strong after 08' elections... got a feeling all those several hundred defense dept. think tanks are gonna lose their funding streams, especially if the democrats get in there. not knocking them, but i think it's fair to say if the democrats take the wheel, defense spending is coming down, which i think has the potential for a mini-vacuum in condo vacancy levels and increased defaults.

Ed, at 200k miles and the age of your car, you can't really rule out anything wearing out. However, given the road salt conditions of St. Louis during winter, I wouldn't be suprised if your wheel bearing could be shot. That salt is some nasty nasty stuff. The cat's though will usually display some sort of performance problem with the cel light. Did the mechanic tell you what the code was that made the cel light come on? Want to rule out a bad O2 sensor before taking on the cat's. The O2's usually go long before the cat's do. Question: how is your ebrake these days? Does is work normally, or is your peddle shock worn out, like mine? The reason I ask is because a few weeks ago I was getting a bad noise as well in the back, and after inspecting the car in my garage, realized the ebrake shoes where dragging on the inside of the rotor hub. A simple twist of the cable adjustment to disengage the ebrake all together fixed it. No ebrake, but no noise or drag either.

I've done this before, about a year ago, and I liked the results a lot. I also scrubbed my throttle body to a smooth shine. The performance difference was, and still is, very noticable. However, beware, you might need to change your plugs as I've heard the seafoam can foul them. I think I'm getting close to having to replace mine, and I've probably got 40k miles from them. They're genuine Toyota plugs, so I think the seafoam probably excellerated their demise. Thankfully, though, I've got 6 of the required 8 sitting on my work bench at home, ready to go....Blake da' man! One thing I strongly advise when doing this proceedure, is to either (a) warn your neighbors and hope they're cool, or (B.) which I prefer, is go out to the country and do it. Because you will have a HUGE cloud of white and and grey smoke coming out of your tail pipes for about 3 to 5 minutes. When I say huge, I mean freakin' HUGE, and it's not steam, it's smoke, so it will travel, and it stinks! It's all that carbon build-up being burnt off, so you can imagine how that smells. For me, the car sucked in the seafoam in just a second or two, it was very quick. Have someone to help you. You want to shut the engine off immediatly when the cup of seafoam is dry. Put vacuum hose back on with needle-nose pliers, let sit for 10 minutes, crank engine "keep cranking, it will start", and rev rev rev rev rev. Don't do this on a cold engine, let it warm up first before doing the seafoam.

I agree with Swo on buying the tires from a local spot. I have a thread in this section somewhere from about a year ago that dealt with the Michelin and Continentals tires for my LS400. I went with the Conti's from tirerack, but later realized the tread count was way too high, and the car felt like it was riding on concrete tires. I ponied up for the Michelin's, and haven't had a problem since. All in all though, buying them from tirerack.com cost me probalby an additional $300 in hassle with having to have the Conti's mounted, balanced and then removed, and the Michelin's mounted and balanced. Not to mention the down time for the car to sit while waiting on the tires..... Buy your tires locally, just in case you don't like them. The only time I will ever buy from a place like tirerack.com again is if I'm 110% certain of what tire I want and have no doubts. Otherwise, you're wasting more money than you'll save by buying from an online store only. My suggestion...head over to your local NTB or something like that and ask some questions. I think, and feel pretty certain the guys will agree, that Michelin is the overall best tire brand for the LS series in general. Goodyear has some tires, Blake918 has some on his car I believe, but I think he liked the Michelin's better, I think... Overall though, I would say you're in the sweet-spot with the Michelin brand on your LS. PS: You stink for living in Miami Beach, while the rest of us are FREEZING OUR BUTTS OFF!!!! HAHAHAA...

Super, since our engines are pretty much the same, check out this thread below. It has pictures, and I believe it discusses the reverse threading of the solenoid. http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...24775&st=75

every single car i've ever owned, from the 80's to now, have all had at least one good ding, no matter what. And none of them from what you would think, another's car door. I am cursed under the Murphy's Law of odd dings. 87 VW GTI hit by a stapler in high school parking lot. 92 Sentra SE-R during Hurricane Berths in 96', fake window shutter flew off house, across the front yard and tagged front quarter panel. 94 Jimmy got hit by a surf board at the beach, and a bottom feeder fishing weight from drunken mishap casting. 99 Subaru Outback got hit by a green pine cone that was like a freakin' baseball. 01' Maxima got hit by small tree branch from hurricane Irene, and my now LS400, I kid you not, has a tiny dent and decent scratch on the passenger's rear door from....off all things...a freakin' SQUIRREL that fell out of the tree at my old house, and tried to use the door to brace his fall. I no longer fix my dings until I sell or trade the car in, just a waste of money for me.

Dude, that was over two years ago.....

rdefabri, I agree with DC on the synthetic oils. I just recently switched over to the synthetic stuff in my 95 LS, and what a difference it has made!! I used Valvoline's 80w-90 full synthetic, it's in a blue bottle. I also used a hand pump to get the oil into the differential. I have something like looks like a painter's caulking gun that has a plastic tube on the end. It worked great, and you get them at any auto store for like $10 bucks. On the bolts, they can be tough to get off. I recommend a long handled wrench, so you can get some leverage. I have one of those cheapo' Husky hydrolic floor jacks "$20 bucks +/-". I had to use it to initially get the bolt to break loose. Make sure you've got the fill bolt loose before the drain bolt. Last thing you want is a drained differential with no way to refill it!